Museum Blog

7 article(s) for January 2015

Volunteers scanning tens of thousands of starry images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, using the Web-based Milky Way Project, recently stumbled upon a new class of curiosities that had gone largely unrecognized before: yellow balls.
"With prompting by the volunteers, we analyzed the yellow bal…

What is lightning? Swift. Sudden. A spark. An element of the sky. Fire. A destroyer. Lightning and arrows share a natural metaphorical connection. Whether launched from a bow or an atlatl, arrows similarly occupy the sky and strike down in swiftness bringing death. The metaphor is only deepened by t…

Chandra Celebrates the International Year of Light
The year of 2015 has been declared the International Year of Light (IYL) by the United Nations. Organizations, institutions, and individuals involved in the science and applications of light will be joining together for this yearlong celebration …

Here’s Ceres Compared to All the Other Asteroids We’ve Visited
When the Dawn mission was in its planning stages, Ceres was considered an asteroid. But in 2006, a year before the mission launched, the International Astronomical Union formed a new class of solar system objects known as dwarf planets,…

New Horizons Begins First Stages of Pluto Encounter
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft recently began its long-awaited, historic encounter with Pluto. The spacecraft is entering the first of several approach phases that culminate July 14 with the first close-up flyby of the dwarf planet, 4.67 billion …

The Space News Update is put together by volunteers and staff in the Space Sciences Newsroom. Twice a week they review numerous space news websites to bring you the latest stories and information.
Find out what to watch for in the night sky, the best time to see the International Space Station pa…

January Sky Calendar (pdf) Highlights this month's sky phenomena and celestial happenings with local dates and times (Mountain time zone). Free sky maps are available at www.skymaps.com.Skymaps.com produces a nice sky chart to help in locating observable celestial objects. Maps for the month ahead …